


Voltron Meta

by Rachello344



Series: Tumblr Meta Essays [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Analysis, Crossposted from Rachello344 Blog, Meta Essays, Nonfiction, Plot analysis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 19:40:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16839112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rachello344/pseuds/Rachello344
Summary: A collection of my Voltron meta posts cross posted from Tumblr.





	1. 24 August 2016

**Author's Note:**

> Since tumblr is rapidly going down hill, I've decided to put all of my essays on Ao3. It'll probably take a while, but I'll be posting each fandom's essays in their own work to collect them all in one place.

Alright, girls and boys and those who are neither, I am here today to bring you what I like to call more colloquially, “The Voltron ages from Comicon are garbage and here’s why!” In fact, consider that my thesis statement because things are taking a turn for the (informal) essay here, my friends.

Under the readmore for length!

Before we get started, I feel like I should make a few disclaimers. First, while I do ship Sheith, I wouldn’t call myself an active shipper. I like a lot of other ships the same or more than Sheith, to be honest. I don’t really especially dislike any of the main ships either. Second, I am primarily a post-structuralist by trade. What that means, more or less, is that I believe that when analyzing a piece of media, one should focus on the text itself above all other things. (The text, in this case, being the cartoon’s episodes. I don’t cite them directly, but I have watched the show twice.) Always refer back to the text is the motto I’ve been living by, and it’s what I’m comfortable with.

(As an aside, there are other forms of literary criticism and theory that _do_ refer to interviews with the writer and the author’s intention in writing the piece, but those aren’t methods I’m going to be using because I think it forces a lot of nuance out of a reading. If you prefer that mode, go for it, but that’s not the method I’m going for here, and I’m going to be pretty irreverent as far as author intention is concerned.)

That being said, the first point I have against the ages is actually very simple: Someone outside of the text telling me what they intended is not, in fact, any basis for canon or analysis. Period. The author’s intention does not actually play into an analysis at all. J.K. Rowling can tell me how gay Dumbledore is until she’s blue in the face, but if I don’t see it clearly in the text itself, then the argument can be made that he isn’t. It’s as simple as that. So, a few people involved in the show’s creation said something about their ages—so what? If it’s not in the text, it doesn’t count as far as post-structuralism (and most major forms of analysis currently in use) is concerned. And I’ve watched the show twice. There’s no canon reference to the age of any character, aside from Zarkon who is thousands of years old. (And I don’t see anyone using his age as a reference point, so he’s irrelevant in this argument.)

Even if I _did_ accept those ages as canon (Pidge at 14, Shiro at 25, and the rest in their late teens), there is no reason why that would ever stop me from shipping Sheith. If Keith is old enough to be in a sexual relationship with Lance, then he’s old enough to be in a sexual relationship with Shiro. Claiming power imbalances just suggests to me that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of characterization as given to us by the show. (I’d be more worried about Keith pressuring Shiro than the other way around, and I’m not worried about that either.) You either think Keith is a child or you don’t, so if you claim he is, I hope you’re not drawing anything NSFW of him, seeing as he’s a minor and all.

Now, I’d like to go into why I think the ages are ridiculous and unrealistic. First, let’s take a look at the textual evidence given to us by Pidge and Matt. Pidge, as Katie, is shown to be in late middle school or high school by the time Matt and her father are gearing up to leave Earth. She’s developed breasts, marking her as a teenager, and she’s clearly already very knowledgeable about a lot of complex fields—I’d approximate mid-high school, and I’ll get into why in a second. Generally speaking, American audiences are going to assume that things in fiction hover near a societal norm. So, we can assume based on shared cultural experience that Pidge and Matt—given the lack of any evidence of a remarriage of any kind—are full siblings. Generally speaking, most parents decide how many kids they want from the getgo—their nice house and lack of any apparent poverty suggest to me that the Holts were able to choose how many kids they wanted and when. That being the case, most kids born in that circumstance are no more than about 5 or 6 years apart, and even that is really rounding up. The largest gap I’ve seen with relative frequency is 4 years. The most common I see is about 2.

If Matt is old enough to go on a relatively low risk trip into space—given the fact that they were collecting ice samples from a relatively nearby moon—I’m going to say the youngest he could possibly be is 18. Given that this is a cartoon, I don’t think that’s necessarily too young for the mission, but let’s round up and say he’s 19 or 20 when he leaves for argument’s sake. If Pidge is at most 6 years younger, that would put her at 14 when her brother and father leave, and about 15 by the time she’s snuck into the garrison. _If Matt is 20._

Matt and Shiro, as members of the same mission, are probably close in age. Given Shiro’s immediate brotherly affection for Pidge, I’m willing to say he’s at most a year older. _But_ the cast said he was _25_. If we assume Shiro and Matt are 24 or 25, that would put Pidge _10 years younger_. The only times I’ve seen an age gap like that between siblings— _especially in fiction_ —is when the parents have remarried or there was some kind of circumstance that prevented or delayed the birth of a second child. This kind of age gap is rare in my experience, and isn’t something the average viewer is going to intuit. On a casual watch, I guessed Pidge was 4 years younger than her brother, not _10._

Now, the next major point I have is also pretty simple. If the garrison is preparing pilots for space flight, they need to be late teens—approaching 18 or 19 on average by the time of their first flight. Given that this is a cartoon, I’m willing to suspend disbelief and say they can be 18 when they fly into space officially. As none of them _have_ yet, officially anyway, that means they’re likely between 16 and 18, with the slight exception of Pidge who used forged documents in order to attend—as an aside, a 14 year old _cannot masquerade as an 18 year old_. A 16 year old, on the other hand, could probably manage it. Anyway, I’d say Hunk, Lance, and Keith are all around 17 to 19. As I believe Shiro is only a few years older than Pidge, I’d put him somewhere between 20 and 22 at the oldest—leaving an age gap that is not unreasonable in the slightest, either for dating or between siblings.

Furthermore, Keith is shown to know Shiro personally. The only way I think this could happen is if they were enrolled at the same time. Honestly, realistically, I think the garrison functions similarly to the air force, so after high school, you can enlist. So, really, if it weren’t a cartoon, I’d say they’re all at least 18 (excepting Pidge). If we assume they went to school at the same time, the three would have been 18 when Shiro went missing, while Shiro was probably 20 or 21. That leaves them all as 16 or 17 (Pidge), about 19 (Keith, Lance, and Hunk), and 21 or 22 (Shiro). Other ages _could_ be possible, but I don’t see any textual evidence for any of it personally.

And, honestly, even if Shiro _was_ 25 and Keith and the others are 18 or 19, given the whole intergalactic space war they’re fighting, I think all the attention on age differences and problematic relationships is a little silly. If they’re old enough to fight in a space war with a giant robot made out of flying lions, I think they’re old enough to have sex if they really wanted to. But then, that’s just my opinion.

I should point out, as a side note in defense of Sheith, I don’t actually care if you personally have an issue with the relationship because of X thing that has happened to you in the past. In the same way that author intention doesn’t matter in post-structuralism, neither does reader affect. In other words, a reader’s opinion on the text—in this case, a viewer’s opinion on the cartoon—has no bearing on the overall meaning of the text. The only things that affects the overall/underlying meaning are the style and content of the text itself. Your feelings on the text do not affect the text. The author’s feelings on the text do not affect the text. The text simply _is_.

If anyone wants to argue with me about the points I’ve made here, I’d love to have a debate, but I’m going to be asking you to point to the text. If you can’t form an argument in favor of the ages through using the text—and I’m not saying it’s impossible, this is just my own reading of it—then you don’t have a leg to stand on as far as literary criticism is concerned. Blunt, but true.

If you _can_ point to the text, I’d actually really like to hear it. I’m interested in seeing how other people read Voltron, but I don’t want to hear the same old “the cast said X.” I don’t care if the cast/crew/writers said that Allura is actually a flesh-eating rabbit disguised as an Altean princess. Unless it shows up in the text, it doesn’t mean anything to me.

* * *

Addition from 4 September 2016:

Hello again, friends and comrades! This is why showrunning cannot be taken as canon. Last week Shiro was “25” and now he’s a student in their class: <http://fenri.tumblr.com/post/149915439011/anti-sheiths-can-stop-being-nasty-and-terrorizing> Don’t trust things from conventions. (Likewise, this actually means nothing outside of proving that they’re contradicting themselves. Until it’s in the text, this matters as little as the prior statement.)

Of course, with this in mind, that changes several things I based my essay around, and makes it much easier to come up with a new read! Pidge/Katie and Matt are probably only about two years apart (totally normal sibling age gap), unless Matt’s older than Shiro (possible), and Shiro and company are all probably 17-18 and about two years older than Pidge (probably around 15-16).

PR is not showrunning, my compatriots. Stay kind, everyone.


	2. 5 August 2017

First thing’s first: As each of my other two meta rely on this assumption, I’m going to explain the reasons I think this new “Shiro” at the end of season three is a clone. For simplicity’s sake, from here on, when I mean the Shiro from season three, I’ll call him Kuron (after Project Kuron) and the real Shiro will just be Shiro. That being said, let’s start from the beginning. This is going to get long and maybe a little complicated, but bear with me. It’s going under this readmore for length.

When we first meet him, Kuron has long hair, long enough to imply that it’s been _at least_ six months, maybe even closer to a year. That, more than anything, really throws a wrench into the timeline. “How long has Shiro been gone?” Well, by all accounts, no more than a month, no less than about two weeks. And yet, his hair is that long? It doesn’t make sense. And then, on top of that, Kuron sees _another Shiro_ strapped down. At first, I thought it was because he was having a nightmare, but it’s shown that he is awake, just shaky. I’m willing to believe that he did really see another Shiro–after all, why make only one clone? And even if he was imagining it, why does he remember seeing another Shiro that wasn’t himself? Why are their ID numbers different? It all adds up to suggest that this new “Shiro” (Kuron), really is a clone.

And then, we have his escape. The empire was holding the Champion, the Black Paladin of Voltron, on some distant outpost near an ice planet with rebels on it? Really? That seems unsafe and a little ridiculous. Shiro is probably one of the Galra’s Most Wanted, and I’m to believe that he wasn’t being held in maximum security in the center of the Empire? That doesn’t sound right. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, they let him escape? Why would they do that? (I know why I think they’d do that, but that’s a topic for another post.)

I won’t go too much into the circumstances of his finding Voltron again (also suspect), because I’m going to be focusing on that in the aforementioned post. Instead, let’s move to his change in design. Changing a character’s hair or clothes mid-season in this kind of cartoon is something that implies a drastic change from the character’s baseline. Consider Zuko cutting off his hair in ATLA, a sign that he was moving away from what his father wanted from him, starting over and trying to retake what honor means to him, etc. Korra cuts her hair after a _significant_ trauma. Mulan cuts her hair to become Ping. Kaneki Ken in Tokyo Ghoul has at least three distinct designs, all of which indicate completely different personalities–the original “black-haired” Kaneki, “white-haired Kaneki,” and Haise (black roots with white hair). When Kaneki is no longer “Haise,” his hair immediately returns to its previous white. Character design matters with differentiating, even when it’s the same character suffering a drastic change.

For Shiro, we’ve seen Original Shiro (pre-Kerberos), his appearance post-Kerberos (and after being forced to fight and experimented on, a trauma the turned some of his hair white), Sven (like pre-Kerberos Shiro, but with an accent), and now Kuron (shorter hair, different clothes). Differentiating him to that extent would only make sense if a. Shiro were gone for longer, b. the events he suffered were especially traumatic, or c. if this Shiro is not the same as the original. Kuron and Sven are both significant departures from Shiro’s normal design, both in their hair and their clothes–and for Sven, his arm. I don’t think the events between Shiro’s disappearance and his apparent reappearance were enough for that kind of change in design, but if he were a totally different Shiro, it _would_ make sense. And the fact that we have a fake Shiro to compare with is both significant and a little too convenient.

Even if the design and the circumstances weren’t enough, his behavior and Keith’s response to him are also suspect. We have seen two seasons of “Shiro as he naturally is.” He’s noble and self-sacrificing, supportive (especially of Keith), and he has a pretty morbid sense of humor (gallows humor anyone?). Kuron has shown himself to be none of those things. I believe that Shiro, rather than trying to return to being Black Paladin right away, would have stood aside and let Keith lead. Shiro is the one who _chose Keith_. Why would he try to get in the way of something he wanted? And then even disrupt Keith _during a mission?_ The same Shiro who allowed Keith to do what he thought was necessary with the Blade of Marmora, only promising to step in if he thought things were too dangerous or getting out of hand. That Shiro has never been the type of person to command like Kuron is shown to–he doesn’t need to.

And it wasn’t until after the fact that I realized that a Shiro held captive by apparent rebel forces (people who should be on his side) would have spent most of the time joking about it. I mean, he was clearly not in any particular danger. Escaping was simple enough for him. And he didn’t crack a single joke? No sighing about ending up in such a position or about being held captive by his own potential allies? And in the ship when he’s on his own, he didn’t make a single joke in his log? That’s just unrealistic. Shiro is like the main character in The Martian. He’s prone to self-deprecating humor, especially if he’s in some kind of danger. (When he was bleeding and surrounded by beasts, he was talking casually with Keith, cracking jokes about the situation.) Kuron doesn’t make a single joke. Not one.

Now, on a darker note: his orders during the team’s attempts to fight Lotor/retake the comet. At the beginning of the mission, Keith insists on going after Lotor and leaving the comet for later. If they can take Lotor out of the equation now, they should. Kuron shuts that down and insists he and the team go after the comet. Everyone agrees with Kuron. When they’re outside, going after the comet (the ship), Kuron suddenly commands they go after Lotor and the warp gate, doing a complete 180 on his orders. Everyone, again, agrees with Kuron. And then, when Keith insists they go after Lotor’s ship, Kuron stops them and calls them back to regroup.

Keith’s frustration, at a glance, appears to be a case of growing pains. He’s apparently used to leading now, so he dislikes taking orders–except that Keith would be happy to have Shiro lead again. He’s willing to follow orders… that make sense. Shiro normally allows Keith to do what he thinks is right. He trusts Keith’s judgment and frequently asks his opinion on plans of action. Kuron actively undermines Keith’s authority, calling all of his plans into question and leads the team in effectively isolating and dog-piling Keith. These scenes are followed by Keith and Kuron speaking alone. Kuron apologizes for his behavior but also scolds Keith, insisting he learn to choose his battles, as if Keith wasn’t doing _exactly that_ the entire time.

Kuron’s orders during the mission were always to do what Keith _didn’t_ want to do. He constantly negated Keith’s orders to the detriment of the mission, using his authority and the others’ trust in him to derail any and all of Keith’s plans. Keith is capable of adapting, so he managed to complete part of their mission anyway, but that’s only because he’s a quick thinker, even under pressure. It took me a little while to realize what it was about this that left me feeling so unsettled. During these scenes, Kuron is gaslighting Keith. He keeps flipping the script on Keith, isolating him from the rest of the team, and insisting that he’s in the right, that he knows best, that what he’s doing is for Keith’s own good. He apologizes but in the same breath scolds Keith. And if Keith called him on it, no one would believe him. They would all think he was making it up or imagining it. Even in his own team, Keith is alone once again. And the real Shiro would never stand for that let alone make it happen himself.

Keith is more comfortable with Shiro than with anyone else. He is the first person he thinks about during disaster, and the first person he worries might be in danger. Shiro is both his greatest hope and his greatest fear. Keith is _more afraid of losing Shiro than anything else_. So then why doesn’t he seem more happy to see him here? Everyone else seems happier than Keith when Keith was the one most intent on searching for him. Sure, he wants this to be Shiro and he wants to be allowed to have this, but I think he knows that something’s wrong. He was planning to search the universe for Shiro, but he turned up practically at their doorstep without any effort on Keith’s part. It was too easy. In almost every shot of “Shiro” and Keith this season, Keith’s expression is strained or worried. He smiles a few times, but none of them are like the normal smiles he reserves for Shiro. Keith infiltrated a government building, crossed a chasm and fought monsters, attacked _Zarkon_ , all to get Shiro back. So then why doesn’t he look more relieved?

I think, at some level, Keith suspects that this Shiro is actually the wrong one. After his initial shock at seeing Sven, Keith basically completely disregards him, more concerned with the Alteans than with him, despite the uncanny resemblance to the boy he’s been searching for. And here we see a similar coldness, though not the same. This is _almost_ Shiro. Sometimes, he really is exactly like Shiro, but others he does things that Shiro would never do. That disconnect is enough to sow doubt in the minds of both the viewer and Keith. VLD never seems to show the initial moments of reunion or strong emotion between people–often to their detriment, imo–but they do show the fallout, and regardless of how their initial reunion went, the latter stages of it show Keith distrusting Shiro in a way that he never has.

Keith and the Black Lion want Shiro back more than anyone else. They are _both_ still looking for him. But the lion refused Kuron from piloting her. She switched between Keith and Shiro before, so why would she refuse Shiro _now_? Unless, perhaps, he isn’t _her_ Shiro, and she knows it. After all, Shiro is the kind of leader who doesn’t want to lead. I don’t think he would insist on taking the reins again the first moment he could–trying to pry his role back from Keith is unlike him and unfitting for the leader he has shown himself to be. With his behavior out of the ordinary and Black turning him away despite _still looking for him_ , it’s no wonder that Keith seems to be on his guard with the person he usually trusts more than himself. It’s a wonder that no one else (in show) has noticed at this point.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few points, but I know I’m not the only one who believes this Shiro is more likely a clone than the real deal. In any case, if anyone has any questions or points they want clarified, please feel free to send me an ask. I’d be happy to elaborate. I’m going to be writing two more posts, on the lions and on Lotor, so I’ll answer any questions I get afterward.


	3. 5 August 2017

Second meta for the day: The Lions and their Paladins. People have moved around this season, so I’d like to point out what this implies about how the lions function and the role of necessity in their choice of paladin.

The Black Lion is the first Lion we see choosing a second paladin (in season 2), even though her first is still alive. Keith asks permission in order to save Shiro and, in the interest of protecting her paladin, Black apparently agrees. So, when Shiro disappears, it makes sense that she would accept Keith once more. Keith isn’t the Black Paladin, but he’s the Black Lion’s best asset in finding/protecting her real paladin, just like they did before.

We learned in this season that the Red Paladin is the second in command–Red is in charge when Black is for some reason out of commission. We see this countless times in the series. If Shiro is unable to proceed, Keith steps in. Always. So with Shiro gone, Keith makes sense as his replacement–until they can find him.

Now personality is still a factor. Keith is a good leader, he’s just not as much a natural as Shiro is. But as second in command, we know Keith can take charge and lead his team. The Red Lion’s most logical choice for paladin–based on personality–would be the person most like Keith in temperament. That person isn’t Lance; it’s Allura. Allura and Keith mirror each other constantly. They both are prone to fighting instead of regrouping, they both love fiercely and unconditionally, they’re both ruled by instinct to some extent. There’s even a scene where they _both run away together_ because they think they’re the reason Zarkon is able to find them. Their instinct in that situation was _the same_.

However, the Red Lion is _extremely difficult to pilot_. Keith is an ace pilot and a genius. He and Red connect quickly because Keith is a quick learner and he knows in his bones how to fly and more importantly _how to fly fast_. Black’s (lack of) speed frustrates him, after all. But Allura, while she suits Red, does not know how to pilot a lion. She knows how to pilot the castle. So, there need to be adjustments made. Red needs a pilot–not an engineer, not a techie–someone with experience as a pilot. Lance is the only one who fits the bill. He is the Blue Paladin, but he is the only one currently capable of flying Red.

The Blue Lion, by contrast, is easier to learn to fly. She’s not as fast and she’s highly intuitive. Allura, by thinking like Lance, or rather _feeling_ instead of thinking, is able to pick up piloting Blue very quickly. Had she been in Red, that would not have been the case. Lance knew how to fly a lion and he had a lot of trouble getting used to Red. Allura fits Red, but she must fly Blue. Pidge and Hunk could not possibly take on Red and don’t suit other lions at all.

This arrangement is a product of necessity. The understanding where the lions are concerned, I believe, is that as soon as Shiro is back, everything will return to normal. Allura will return to piloting the castle, Lance will return to Blue, and Keith will return to Red. It’s interesting then that Black refuses the Shiro they find. As I said earlier, I think this is because that one _isn’t really Shiro._ The lions should be able to tell, bonded as they are. They might be fooled from a distance, but when the pilot is in the cockpit, their connection couldn’t be stronger. A Shiro that can’t pilot Black is not the real Shiro.

Keith is a good leader and he’s capable of piloting Black, but he belongs in Red. Lance belongs in Blue. Allura is meant to remain in the castle–though she wants to fight, she’s the princess. They need her out of harm’s way. Without her, they lose too much. And even if she wasn’t meant to be in the castle, she should pilot Red, not Blue. Her father was Red, and it’s the Lion she most resembles. (Her uniform is even _pink_ , which is a lighter shade of red.) These assignments are not meant to last, not as long as they get the real Shiro back.


End file.
